Review for IDW Transformers Beast Wars #6

william-james88 wrote:For instance, there is a scene where Dinobot says he is facing five Decepticons but there are only 4 in front of him.

...

Someone didn't catch that there were 4 Decepticons in the shot (as there should be).

You forgot to count Megatron's ego. That's a clear 5th member of the team.

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:For instance, there is a scene where Dinobot says he is facing five Decepticons but there are only 4 in front of him.

...

Someone didn't catch that there were 4 Decepticons in the shot (as there should be).

Haha, right. I'll go fix that. Cheers

This is about the cartoon and not the comic, but this is where my fellow BW fans are at so I'm sharing it here.

I just rewatched the finale today, probably the first time in about a decade. And I caught something I never noticed before. In the first episode, during the space fight, Dinobot shouts "Destroy them!" and Megatron refuses to do so right away. And in Nemesis pt 2, the Nemesis has its fusion canon fully charged, target locked on the Ark, and Megatron shouts "Destroy them!" only for Dinobot II to refuse to do so. I can't help wondering if that was a coincidence or an intentional callback.

I just can't get into this series because the artwork is just so bad... looks worse that coloring book art.

muddyjoe wrote:I just can't get into this series because the artwork is just so bad... looks worse that coloring book art.

The artist is changing next month if i recall. I never found a problem with the art work to be honest but, each go their own.

Let's hope the art style becomes like the alternate BW cover art or like the G1 series.

This style is just lazy, even I could possibly draw as well as this.

So I just got issue 6 and it is probably one of the worst issues to date. Not even for the usual offender being the poorly composed and child-like artwork. This time the writing was just as bad. From IDW 2.0 levels of pointless exposition (comics are a visual medium - SHOW DON'T TELL) to the most monumentally asinine exchange I've read in quite some time. Wherein Optimus Primal explains to Dinobot the origin of HIS OWN NAME

I know now, if this had been out during the Beast Era, I wouldn't have wasted my time on it. This coming from someone who utterly adores Beast Wars. Especially back then, as a kid. I'll give it til the end of the second arc, with the introduction of new characters and obviously better art. If it is still this bad, I'll cancel the subscription and probably give the books to charity.

Just saw the three-page preview of next issue. HUGE improvement on the artwork. Like night and day. Makes me wish the first six issues looked like that.

And something new and potentially interesting in a possible new buddy dynamic between Dinobot and Optimus, with Dinobot being the straight man to Optimus's fun guy persona. It's different and fun and can no way be compared to their very different relationship in the show.

Prepare to maximize your Wednesday with Transformers: Beast Wars #7, set to arrive from IDW Publishing for your weekly new comic book day. Winston Chan takes up the art duties for a short run beginning in this issue, and you can check out the five-page preview provided by IDW further below in this post to get a taste of that for yourself. The publisher's listing for this issue says:

(W) Erik Burnham (A) Winston Chan (CA) Fico Ossio
"Pod", part one! After their first explosive battle, both the Maximals and Predacons have allowed a lull to refresh and regroup. But when the first protoform pod comes down and a new entrant to the Beast Wars enters the fray, things are going to change in a major way! But whose side is Blackarachnia on?!

Check out the preview below and be sure to pick this issue up tomorrow at your local comic shop, through a licensed digital comics retailer, or via the Seibertron.com eBay store.

The art is definitely a step in the right direction. Except for the bizarre hands on Dinobot...

IDW's trip to prehistoric Earth or some near-to-that equivalent continues with today's release of Beast Wars #7. The issue begins a new arc called "Pod" and features the first appearance in this comic of Blackarachnia, and that's not a spoiler when she's on the darn cover. Her fictional debut is accompanied by another that's probably the hot topic when it comes to this particular issue, as a new artist takes over for a little while.


I'm personally a big fan of Josh Burcham's art style, but I'm also not blind - it's definitely a style and reading our boards here at Seibertron and elsewhere on the internet will tell you that style is not enjoyed by some fans. For those fans (who are wrong, but that's ok, I'm wrong on the internet a lot too) it may come as good news that issue 7 features Winston Chan as the interior artist, bringing along a change in that aforementioned style concept. Chan's beast modes are stellar, managing to find that careful point between realistic-ish animals and animals that are so large and out-of-scale with one another that they're completely unreal. SidVenBlu (yes, written like that) takes up the color work and brings major consistency with the opening arc of the series that helps make the transition from one artist to another much less jarring than I'd feared.


If there's an area where Chan's art has room for improvement, it's in the characters' robot modes. Something I'm not art-literate enough to describe just looks off about many of the facial expressions, but aside from that, some of the poses the characters are depicted in feel very stiff and artificial. It's worth noting that the action scenes were better than the talking scenes in this regard. Those action scenes are also bolstered by some of Jake M. Wood's best letter work to date - check the image before the one just above (with Dinobot and Optimus Primal from page 2) for an example. Multiple fonts, fun usage of onomatopoeias and nothing in the way of other things makes for a good time.

Art's usually not the first part of my reviews, but it's good to change things up, so this is also where I'll remind Seibertron.com readers that you can find all the cover images and full credits for the issue through our Vector Sigma Database page for Beast Wars #7.


As much as the art's changed and is rightfully the main point of interest in this issue, the plotting has changed very little, and by that I mean the decompressed pace of events. Eric Burnham's writing leaves little to be desired and gets out of the way when it needs to. The characters are further defined and more of each faction's situation is elaborated on. All of that's good to have, but just like with the "Savage Landing" arc, "Pod" is off to a start that makes it feel much like an episode of Beast Wars' first TV season, which is not as much of a compliment as it may sound like to some. If you see the switch in the book's credits where David Mariotte has moved to supervising editor while Jazmine Joyner takes up the mantle as editor and hope for a change to the pacing from that, let me go ahead and give you the bad news - there isn't any. This issue feels like it was plotted out for the trade paperback, just like nearly every issue of this series so far.


Beast Wars #7 continues a story where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The series itself is quite enjoyable, but it's tough to find a single issue that jumps out as better or worse than others. It's strange that comics publishers will judge a book's success based on how many monthly orders it gets from comic shops while simultaneously creating a product that is best enjoyed by those shops' customers when they abstain from the practice of subscribing to boost those monthly numbers as they wait until the collected version is released. You have to wonder when this anachronistic business model will crack, but that's another tangent for another time.

In short, this was another enjoyable issue that works well as part of the series, it's still not something that shines extremely brightly on its own, and fans turned off by the initial art style may find more to like here than in previous issues.



Look out for this issue today, August 25th, where you can pick it up at the Seibertron.com eBay store or at your local shop, check here to find the closest shop to you.

I already miss Josh's art.

The art is already leaps and bounds better than the crud in the previous releases. Let's hope this artist can replace whatever hack was employed for the others.

primalxconvoy wrote:The art is already leaps and bounds better than the crud in the previous releases. Let's hope this artist can replace whatever hack was employed for the others.

He's already set to return in November. I liked his art as well, just remember that art is subjective. Plenty of people hated animated for it's art style after all

Oh, and Cyberverse plenty of folk knock on Cyberverse but they missed out on some great stories and characters.

ZeroWolf wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:The art is already leaps and bounds better than the crud in the previous releases. Let's hope this artist can replace whatever hack was employed for the others.

He's already set to return in November. I liked his art as well, just remember that art is subjective. Plenty of people hated animated for it's art style after all

Oh, and Cyberverse plenty of folk knock on Cyberverse but they missed out on some great stories and characters.

That's a shame that the "artist" it's returning. As for Animated, I liked the show, but the toys were awful. The aesthetic didn't translate into a great toy line. I remember someone telling me that Animated was linked to a female Hasbro employee, or something? She was demoted/let go due to poor Animated toy sales? Can't really validate that though. Cyberverse had a great little (and surprisingly mature) story too. In both cases, they were leaps and bounds better than the main art in this BW series.

And yes, art is subjective and subjectively, I think the regular art for these BW comics was of an extremely poor quality and out of touch with the majority of TF/BW fans.

primalxconvoy wrote:I remember someone telling me that Animated was linked to a female Hasbro employee, or something? She was demoted/let go due to poor Animated toy sales? Can't really validate that though.

Complete and utter bull. The people who spearheaded Animated in both toys and fiction were all men, the art design aesthetic stemming from the style of Derrick J. Wyatt.

And the toys didn't do poorly since Hasbro kept making them even after the show ended. The main reason Animated ended when it did was because Hasbro wanted to leave Cartoon Network and partner with Discovery to create the Hub Network, and wanted to start over and make a new TF cartoon, Prime, to be a flagship program for the new network.

Depending on where you looked, you got different view points of the art, as D Max pointed out a few pages ago.

The animated toyline was superb and I felt it captured the style brilliantly, look at Deluxe Prowl/ Samurai Prowl for instance, the engineers worked miracles. There was a few duds of course (Voyager Megs) but they were outshone. It was a shame the last few toys never got a wider release.

Not heard of the female employee story

Edit:

Thanks for the clarification Sabrblade!

Sabrblade wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:I remember someone telling me that Animated was linked to a female Hasbro employee, or something? She was demoted/let go due to poor Animated toy sales? Can't really validate that though.

Complete and utter bull. The people who spearheaded Animated in both toys and fiction were all men, the art design aesthetic stemming from the style of Derrick J. Wyatt.

I think it's a reference to Samanttha Lomow but a bunch of facts are getting twisted.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:I remember someone telling me that Animated was linked to a female Hasbro employee, or something? She was demoted/let go due to poor Animated toy sales? Can't really validate that though.

Complete and utter bull. The people who spearheaded Animated in both toys and fiction were all men, the art design aesthetic stemming from the style of Derrick J. Wyatt.

I think it's a reference to Samanttha Lomow but a bunch of facts are getting twisted.

Could you elaborate? Also, for reference, I'm not suggesting that sex/gender is an issue here.

Xenos Prime wrote:I already miss Josh's art.

Same, this looks good, but I like Josh's more

I give this issue the same score

william-james88 wrote:I give this issue the same score

I mean, on my scale/our very unofficial scale a 3.5 = "good", so nothing wrong with that!

Sabrblade wrote: The main reason Animated ended when it did was because Hasbro wanted to leave Cartoon Network and partner with Discovery to create the Hub Network, and wanted to start over and make a new TF cartoon

It tends to be a running theme with Transformers shows of old. Just when they were getting good, becoming their own thing (usually third season) they end. Animated picked up significantly by Season 3.
Beast Wars to me, was it's own exception. As Season 3 wasn't great. But, I wanted to see where the show would have gone post-Beast Machines (so Season 5, in essence). Yet it was not to be.

As for the art. This is an objective improvement. It's not perfect. But this artist understands the fundamentals. Character scaling, basic anatomy, panel composition AKA The arty-farty stuff. That anyone who has chosen this career should know. Many stylised artists IE Tom Scioli, understand that. So it isn't a justifiable excuse to hide behind.

Then again, I've read comic books since I was 4 or 5yo. Everything from Tintin to Lone Wolf & Cub to Watchmen. Even the worst art gets it's plaudits. Rob Liefeld had his fans, after all...



^This art, a few pages ago in this very thread, was considered more favourable than Burcham.

Some poor soul in the letters page doesn't understand what Alone Together was supposed to be and asks if the writer of this series can tie it into this.

Sigh

One of the many reasons this was the wrong era to bring back Beast Wars.

The art is definitely an improvement on what was seen in the first few issues, not enough to get me to start reading however.

o.supreme wrote:The art is definitely an improvement on what was seen in the first few issues, not enough to get me to start reading however.

Honestly, in good conscience I couldn't recommend this book. Between this and 2.0, I don't think IDW are doing justice to the franchise of late. Clearly money is a factor and the talent is either inexperienced and/or cheap.

Personally, as far as respecting licensed IP. I would suggest Transformers being given to Dark Horse. They did fantastic stuff with Star Wars, Conan, Hellboy etc (before the former two were poached by Disney). I think they could do much the same for the bots of Cybertron.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Honestly, in good conscience I couldn't recommend this book. Between this and 2.0, I don't think IDW are doing justice to the franchise of late. Clearly money is a factor and the talent is either inexperienced and/or cheap.

Personally, as far as respecting licensed IP. I would suggest Transformers being given to Dark Horse. They did fantastic stuff with Star Wars, Conan, Hellboy etc (before the former two were poached by Disney). I think they could do much the same for the bots of Cybertron.

I've not read a single 2.0 story. Honestly, after the first continuity ended, I kept all the IDW books (450+ of them), in boxes in my closet for over a year, never looking back at a single one, which is why I decided to sell them. Unfortunately in the Purge I also sold most of my Marvel and DW collection as well. I do regret that a bit, but if I could get them back digitally, that would suffice.

Seems like most of the more talented individuals from the bigger publishers (Marvel and DC) are being poached by smaller businesses like Substack. Will it last? Is it viable? Who knows? In the past I'd agree that Dark Horse was a great publisher. I enjoyed their Godzilla series in the 90's quite a bit. But in the current environment, I am unsure. Comics overall have really gone down in quality, especially in the last 5-10 years, I really can't point to any story from any publisher that compelled me to read it.

I have read everything Transformers upto the Devastator storyline (Transformers Galaxies), thanks to the Part Work. But if asked for IDW Transformers recommendations, my go-to options haven't changed: Last Stand of the Wreckers and Furman's -Ations run. Nothing else since 2005 has screamed "Transformers" to me, from their entire output.

It takes a great creative team to make a noteworthy book in this day and age. Strange Adventures from DC and Immortal Hulk from Marvel, being very strong examples. A publisher brand alone doesn't cut it like it used to. If anything, I'd recommend IDW for their TMNT work.

Back when Image was formed in the 90's, it was for a purpose. To continue further splintering the industry into smaller and smaller entities, won't end well. "Too many cooks" and all that...

I got the impression that this BW series was aimed squarely at the younger members of the TF community (those that weren't around when the show first aired).

For me, I wish they had retold, with whatever caveats were needed, the BW2 and Neo stories, and tied both the story and art style into the excellent DW/IDW Beast Wars comics that came out before this new series. I would also have loved to read a continuation of that the IDW/DW universe, with new stories, using obscure/underutilized characters. The writers could then go nuts with new characters, or bringing in new BW/BM versions of existing G1/BM characters, etc. Basically, post BC Wreckers, and all that. It could have blossomed into its own full series...

primalxconvoy wrote:I got the impression that this BW series was aimed squarely at the younger members of the TF community (those that weren't around when the show first aired).

For me, I wish they had retold, with whatever caveats were needed, the BW2 and Neo stories, and tied both the story and art style into the excellent DW/IDW Beast Wars comics that came out before this new series.

As far as I am aware, the only BW story in DW was in the 20th anniversary one-shot that had multiple stories from different continuities. There was a fan vote for next regular series (BW vs RiD), in which BW won, but the series never materialized.

I did enjoy IDW Gathering/Ascending as well. I sold the individual books, but kept the MTMTE/Universe styled profile books.

o.supreme wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:I got the impression that this BW series was aimed squarely at the younger members of the TF community (those that weren't around when the show first aired).

For me, I wish they had retold, with whatever caveats were needed, the BW2 and Neo stories, and tied both the story and art style into the excellent DW/IDW Beast Wars comics that came out before this new series.

As far as I am aware, the only BW story in DW was in the 20th anniversary one-shot that had multiple stories from different continuities. There was a fan vote for next regular series (BW vs RiD), in which BW won, but the series never materialized.

I did enjoy IDW Gathering/Ascending as well. I sold the individual books, but kept the MTMTE/Universe styled profile books.

"The story for this series was a significant revamp of the scripts which Furman previously submitted to Dreamwave Productions for what was to be titled Shell Game. Selected artwork that Figueroa submitted for these original scripts was reused in the rewritten issues. Originally the plot was to tie into "Ain't No Rat". "

(Source: - https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers,_B ... _Gathering )

That's why I wrote "DW/IDW", as the IDW comic had very close ties with the abandoned/unpublished DW BW project. Arguably, one could say it WAS the DW story, which was simply finished by IDW.

"significant Revamp" as in not the same, as it would have been if it had been Published by DW.

o.supreme wrote:"significant Revamp" as in not the same, as it would have been if it had been Published by DW.

The point is that the stories were a joint DW/IDW creation. I don't recall stating they were "the same".

primalxconvoy wrote:I got the impression that this BW series was aimed squarely at the younger members of the TF community (those that weren't around when the show first aired).

To be fair, that is exactly the demographic I hear from reading the letters page. I don't think any of these letters reflect someone with long standing appreciation for what Beast Wars is and was, in the 90's.

Anyway, issue seven. A marked improvement, art-wise obviously. The interpersonal dialogue is still off and lacklustre. Concerning the Predacons in particular, I'm not getting any personality at all from their exchanges. Scorponok was awful in the show. But at least he stood out. Terrorsaur has a little characterisation. But it is just filling the trope of "bully". Honestly, Scold just needs to be written out. In a sufficiently apt way to her ham-fisted focus...



The second improvement to this is the story itself. We have a new origin story for Blackarachnia. I'll overlook how Burnham clearly doesn't understand how Stasis Pods actually work (stuff like this makes him sound as much a fan of Beast Wars as Kevin Smith is of He-Man). For the first time in seven issues, I am interested to see where this goes though. Although it does speak volumes that the only character I'm suddenly interested in, in this book, is BA. A character I don't actually like. 6.5/10

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:I got the impression that this BW series was aimed squarely at the younger members of the TF community (those that weren't around when the show first aired).

To be fair, that is exactly the demographic I hear from reading the letters page. I don't think any of these letters reflect someone with long standing appreciation for what Beast Wars is and was, in the 90's.

Anyway, issue seven. A marked improvement, art-wise obviously. The interpersonal dialogue is still off and lacklustre. Concerning the Predacons in particular, I'm not getting any personality at all from their exchanges. Scorponok was awful in the show. But at least he stood out. Terrorsaur has a little characterisation. But it is just filling the trope of "bully". Honestly, Scold just needs to be written out. In a sufficiently apt way to her ham-fisted focus...



The second improvement to this is the story itself. We have a new origin story for Blackarachnia. I'll overlook how Burnham clearly doesn't understand how Stasis Pods actually work (stuff like this makes him sound as much a fan of Beast Wars as Kevin Smith is of He-Man). For the first time in seven issues, I am interested to see where this goes though. Although it does speak volumes that the only character I'm suddenly interested in, in this book, is BA. A character I don't actually like. 6.5/10

It's odd that they shingle have gone after the younger demographic, when, fun what I recall, younger readers are less likely to buy comics these days, as opposed to older demographics.

As for Kevin Smith, however, I disagree. I think the recent 1st half of his new MOTU mini-series was great and showed an eye for the details and lore already established in the expanded MOTU world, but each to their own.

primalxconvoy wrote:It's odd that they shingle have gone after the younger demographic, when, fun what I recall, younger readers are less likely to buy comics these days, as opposed to older demographics.

Again, all the more puzzling as this is supposed to be made as per the celebration of the 25th anniversary. Yet it isn't. The way this plays out is in a similar vein to when those writing for Beast Machines were told not to adhere to Beast Wars characterisation. You can't sell something as a sequel or homage, if you have no intention of putting the effort in.

primalxconvoy wrote:As for Kevin Smith, however, I disagree. I think the recent 1st half of his new MOTU mini-series was great and showed an eye for the details and lore already established in the expanded MOTU world, but each to their own.

The problem there, is that isn't what it was sold as. It was sold as a continuation of Filmation. Which it isn't. If someone had said this was a follow up to the 200X series, that would have been a more honest appraisal. Personally, I have no horse in the race either way. My He-Man was New Adventures. Didn't care for Filmation in comparison. To me, aesthetically, it was the difference between Spider-Man TAS and the 60's cartoon.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:It's odd that they shingle have gone after the younger demographic, when, fun what I recall, younger readers are less likely to buy comics these days, as opposed to older demographics.

Again, all the more puzzling as this is supposed to be made as per the celebration of the 25th anniversary. Yet it isn't. The way this plays out is in a similar vein to when those writing for Beast Machines were told not to adhere to Beast Wars characterisation. You can't sell something as a sequel or homage, if you have no intention of putting the effort in.

primalxconvoy wrote:As for Kevin Smith, however, I disagree. I think the recent 1st half of his new MOTU mini-series was great and showed an eye for the details and lore already established in the expanded MOTU world, but each to their own.

The problem there, is that isn't what it was sold as. It was sold as a continuation of Filmation. Which it isn't. If someone had said this was a follow up to the 200X series, that would have been a more honest appraisal. Personally, I have no horse in the race either way. My He-Man was New Adventures. Didn't care for Filmation in comparison. To me, aesthetically, it was the difference between Spider-Man TAS and the 60's cartoon.

Thank you for your opinion. I'm not sure if you've posted there, but there's a thread about it, if you're interested:

- kevin-smith-s-masters-of-the-universe-on-netflix-t116990.php

Be ready to get out of stasis lock tomorrow when Transformers: Beast Wars #8 arrives from IDW Publishing. Those familiar with the Beast Wars story know what to expect for awhile, and that's a fight over the orbiting stasis pods safeguarding Maximal protoforms. Whether this new iteration will stay on this story beat for as long as the cartoon did is yet to be seen, but based on this preview and the synopsis just below, it looks like at least this next issue will look to that as its focus.

(W) Erik Burnham (A) Winston Chan (CA) Andrew Griffith
"Pod," part two! Blackarachnia has made her way to the Maximal ship, the Axalon, and encountered her first Maximal, Cheetor. Now she's gone missing again and it's up to the whole crew to find the mysteriously disappearing spider... before she finds them!

Check out the preview below and be sure to pick this issue up tomorrow at your local comic shop, through a licensed digital comics retailer, or via the Seibertron.com eBay store.

Seems like this could be a Die Hard type story, only with the good and bad guy roles reversed. Which I guess would make it an Alien type story instead.

It would be very disappointing if that throwaway bit of dialogue from Rattrap is the explanation for Blackarachnia's behaviour.

On the plus side, hopefully some (more than one) new and different characters coming soon.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:It would be very disappointing if that throwaway bit of dialogue from Rattrap is the explanation for Blackarachnia's behaviour.

On the plus side, hopefully some (more than one) new and different characters coming soon.

But we saw Tarantulas do exactly what Rattrap said when he infiltrated the Axalon in Issue 6. And last issue blatantly showed his shell program partially uploaded to Blackarachnia's pod as it landed. What's not to get?

As I said, after reading the last issue, Burnham doesn't get how Stasis Pods work. For one thing, how they can't leave orbit on their own.
So it would have been better to do something different with BA. Framing it in such a way, that she thinks she is John McClane on an enemy ship. The enemy faction, to her, being unclear.

They have been trying to set this up as an alternative Beast Wars, not the show. So instead of poorly abridging things the show already did. Go wild and different.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:As I said, after reading the last issue, Burnham doesn't get how Stasis Pods work. For one thing, how they can't leave orbit on their own.
So it would have been better to do something different with BA. Framing it in such a way, that she thinks she is John McClane on an enemy ship. The enemy faction, to her, being unclear.

They have been trying to set this up as an alternative Beast Wars, not the show. So instead of poorly abridging things the show already did. Go wild and different.

Wait, so you want them to try and do their own thing instead of trying to follow the original story... but when they don't translate one element from the cartoon 100% and instead set their own rules (how the stasis pods work), you complain about them not following how it worked in the original story?

The title of Beast Wars #8 is "Pod Part 02", as in the second part of a longer story just called "Pod". In my review of issue 7, I took issue with the book's pacing, and the same issues linger here. It's not terribly slow, but things don't pick up quickly with this most recent release either. As the last mention of this for most of the remainder of this particular review, I'll let Blackarachnia share a word for you if you had expectations that this latest installment would avoid the "writing for the trade" pace the series has been taking -


Writer Eric Burnham does well in this issue at making the events that do happen feel engaging. Even with an idea in mind on roughly what will happen (unless you're new to Beast Wars entirely) there's a sense of tension and plenty of character-appropriate dialogue, resulting in a final product that was very easy to get absorbed in. Outside of Nyx who is pure background decoration in this issue, Burnham shows that he knows who these characters are effectively communicates some of their traits as the story moves along.


Without going into spoiler territory, it can be pointed out that while this issue (and presumably this story arc as a whole) is repeating the beat from the show's plot about recovering Maximal Protoforms from orbit, there's enough difference here to be encouraged by what may be yet to come. Put another way, while you may still generally know from point A on page 1 to point B on page 20 that point B was always the destination, there's some road construction on the way with enticing potential for the future.


The artistic team on issue 8 is the same from 7, meaning Winston Chan's on the lineart again with colors by SidVenBlu and letters by Jake M. Wood. There's a lot to like here, with fun action scenes and a regular helping of close-up character portrayals during the scenes of just dialogue. There's a particular instance where Cheetor's running through the Axalon in cheetah mode and the panel layout has him overlapping multiple panels to express a sense of speed, which was very enjoyable and clever, at least to me. There were some instances again when I thought Chan's expressions went a bit stiff or where some characters' poses looked unnatural that prevent a full helping of solid praise for the art, but in general it's well executed here and still feels consistent with the rest of the series so far.

Cover options include Andrew Griffith's take on Optimus Primal and Megatron duking it out, Martin Gee's Blackarachnia cover which is used for this review's news story's thumbnail, as well as a 10-copy retailer incentive cover featuring both spider Predacons by Ryan Miller. As always, you can find all the cover images and full credits for the issue through our Vector Sigma Database page for Beast Wars #8.


Beast Wars #8 was more fun to read than I expected, with just enough beneath the surface layer of plot to make things compelling despite a general overall expectation of events that went mostly fulfilled. The character development is proceeding smartly in most cases and while the art's not by any means perfect this time around it conveys the story effectively while still providing a standout moment or two. I'm excited to see where things develop, but please, please start getting us there quicker.

I really wanted to go up to a 4/5 this time, which is "very good" on my scale, but the pacing just won't allow me to go above the "good" below.


Look out for this issue today, September 22nd, where you can pick it up at the Seibertron.com eBay store or at your local shop, check here to find the closest shop to you.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:As I said, after reading the last issue, Burnham doesn't get how Stasis Pods work. For one thing, how they can't leave orbit on their own.

It didn't "leave orbit on its own". It started falling because it had received part of the invasive code Tarantulas sent to it, which contained a command for the pod's onboard computer to activate its thrusters and send it down to the planet's surface.

The pods' computers in the cartoon were essentially in sleep mode while in orbit and didn't activate until after the crash-landings. Here, their onboard computers can be accessed with a long-range signal from the ground, a technology the cartoon characters didn't have.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:As I said, after reading the last issue, Burnham doesn't get how Stasis Pods work. For one thing, how they can't leave orbit on their own.

Whatever gave you that impression? Just coz we never saw them land on their own in the show, doesn't mean that it isn't possible. It seems to make perfect sense, actually, that the pods have both remote control and thrusters. Since the Axalon had to eject, it is presumable that this is a safety feature designed into the pods for the purpose it was used. Quickly get rid of the pods to keep them safe, they would need not only the ability to track and report on the status of the pod and the protoform within, but make it easy to retrieve. Giving the pods the ability to maneuver on their own makes perfect sense, thus a few commands to the computer's onboard computer to fire thrusters could very wasily send it into the planet's atmosphere.

I prefer Burcham's art.
Also, not a fan of Burcham's art.

william-james88 wrote:I prefer Burcham's art.
Also, not a fan of Burcham's art.

I think it would be interesting to get a bit of artist rotation going in this book. A different one each arc. If these are being "written for trade", then give each trade it's own visual identity.